Laser systems may incorporate collections of two or more laser diodes either as the direct source of the output laser radiation, or as a pump for a diode-pumped laser, such as a fiber laser, a disk laser, a slab laser, a rod laser, a diode-pumped solid-state laser, a Raman laser, a Brillouin laser, an optical parametric laser, an alkali-vapor laser, or the like. In some laser applications, such as an industrial materials processing application (e.g., sheet metal cutting and welding), beams of light (herein referred to as beams), provided by the two or more laser diodes may be combined to generate, for example, a single high-power and/or high-quality output beam.